A blog listing news and updates for the cloudymidnights site - a site dedicated to climatically challenged or visually impaired astronomers.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Big Picture Science for 11/14/11 - Blame it on Bacterio

Big Picture Science - Blame it on Bacterio Think small! Microbes are tinier than the dot at the end of this sentence, yet they can make humans sicker than dogs, dogs sicker than humans, jump from animal to human and keep scientists guessing when and where the next disease will appear.

Discover how doctors diagnosed one man’s mysterious infection, the role that animals play as hosts for disease, and why the rate of emerging diseases is increasing worldwide.

Also, why your kitchen is a biosafety hazard, and how the Human Microbiome Project will tally all the microbes on – and in – you.

Plus, the extreme places on Earth where microbes thrive and what it suggests for the existence of alien life. And, how one strain of bacteria helped a farmer grow a pumpkin the weight of a small car!

Guests:

Peter Hudson – Biologist, Director of Life Sciences at Penn State University

Peter Krause – Senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health